Consider it kind of ironic that people are lambasting male fans for being fans of the show precisely because it's "aimed at little girls" when that was the initial goal of creator Lauren Faust in the first place (granted the age demographic was intended to be much lower but blame the usually solid writing for that). Then ignore when male shows gain a heavy unintended female demographic.

Also the heavy hate/dislike seems to come from the fact that it's male driven fandom as they largely ignore the teen/adult female fanbase or the fact that most of them are comic fans/anime fans that may be fans of "girl" focused material too but that's okay because those are serious business.

To be honest, the cosplay fans freak me out regardless of subject matter (comics, anime, videogames, etc.) so you're not alone there. As for the fan fiction... meh. As long as they're not profiting off the fiction (Hi, Stephanie Meyer!) then write whatever they want to write. Not like most people are typing such search phrases into Google anyway.

Oh my god oh my god, yes! Rarity goes mad with power and remakes Ponyville! Fun episode overall with Spike finally getting some major duty screen time and was written pretty well. The episode was rather one note plot wise (Spike gets Rarity a spell book so she can create a better puppet show theater for the puppeteer of a Foal & Filly Festival and she subsequently goes mad w/power) but the artwork was really well done, good pace, and lots of fun pop culture references throughout. Even Owlicious got to play the conscience part to Spike's desire to not lose his friendship w/Rarity by telling her the truth about her actions and effects.

Also it dropped a reference to the Saved By the Bell Episode w/the caffeine pills!

Rarity: I'm so excited. I'm so excited.Spike: I'm so scared.

Also Rarity went mad with power complete with evil cackles, glowing green eyes (and horn!), and growled at Spike. So great. The moral of, "Tell your friends the truth even if you're afraid of losing your friendship when you know they're doing something wrong," was worthwhile enough and made sense given the context of the episode.

Solid episodes overall with a very badass fight duel scene that legit reminded me of the Teen Titans S4 run of The End 3 parter in how intense and rather dark it was. The villain, Tirek, was shown as being pretty creepy and even was choking Ponies and shit while soul draining them (intense for this show especially). There was definitely a Teen Titans vibe here as the villain even resembled Raven's father, Trigon, in design and look (red, hulking in size, and with antlers). Discord "turning" and then being truly sorry was a nice thing to see for both his character and the overarching story of his growth too as well as the group taking him back in, esp. loved Fluttershy's obvious hurt even after he apologized though (true to life).

This really was Twilight's story so it made sense for her to be the prominent featured role of the episodes and it worked too. Liked the ending "castle" that Twilight and the group received as it befits her role as a Princess compared to the library in Ponyville but also concerned that it will make her too... specialized if she's shown there too much in Season 5.

The art work was fantastic in both episodes, the score was great, and preferred the first song but both were solid enough. The wrap up of the keys plot was solid, albeit obvious, although the ending felt a little rushed but the fight scene was worth taking up all that screen time.

5x01 Cutie Map - Part 1- TIL: Ponies play Hoofball and have their own trading cards. Big Mac and Spike trade them!- Pinkie Pie being suspicious, Rarity blatantly freaked out, AJ curious, Fluttershy loving the 'kindness', Rainbow Dash wanting a monster/darkness/adventure, and Twilight trying to be overly friendly was neat.- Total Stepford Wives Town feel combined with quasi-religious zealot, pretty obvious and yet still kinda creepy because they're normal yet "off". They have their cutie marks (aka their special, unique talents) taken away and are all exactly the 'same' to avoid bickering/misery over differing cutie marks. Nice to see Starlight Glimmer, a mare (female), be the leader/religious zealot.- Rarity's the queen of background reaction shots in this episode, greatness! Her physically ill reaction to the woven 'cloaks' was pretty good too.- You know the muffins are bad when Pinkie gets upset that she's chosen to eat all 12 of them.- Ick, they actually had their cutie marks yoinked physically off, ouch.

5x02 Cutie Map - Part 2- Nice to see the removal of the cutie marks affecting them almost immediately (Rarity isn't sure the awful drapes are tacky or not then agrees with Fluttershy that she likes them + Fluttershy remarks, "Oh. Even tweets don't make sense anymore!" as a nice nod to the fandom/4th wall). Love the drabber color palette too.- Yay, Fluttershy to the rescue as the focal pony of the 'save us and our cutie marks' plan!- Pinkie's deadpan response to Rainbow Dash about where laughs come from, "Laughs don't come from barrels. They come from inside your body as a response of delight," was hilarious.- Starlight Glimmer has her own cutie mark... what a fraud! hack! con mare!- LOL'd at Rainbow Dash's indignant, "Oh, come on!" when her equal sign negated her flying ability.- Love that Starlight shot down Twilight's sentimental speech about learning more thanks to her five friends than just by studying alone then vanished.

Do I have to be the one to point out that this is wildpegasus's old Astroboy thread if a rainbow threw up on it?

No, we already know you couldn't WAIT to troll me specifically and particularly THIS thread. Go troll elsewhere. Your criticism that this thread is a singular poster thread has been noted in chat and elsewhere and nobody cares! Accept that.

You must live a great life to have to be fixated on this particular thread/subject that I happen to enjoy despite the dozens of other threads I've started, comment in, maintain, and post more than one sentence to. Not to mention the dozens of interests I've displayed in Sports, Music, Film/TV, and otherwise.

Do I have to be the one to point out that this is wildpegasus's old Astroboy thread if a rainbow threw up on it?

No, we already know you couldn't WAIT to troll me specifically and particularly THIS thread.

I go months without posting! I've waited plenty!

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Go troll elsewhere. Your criticism that this thread is a singular poster thread has been noted in chat and elsewhere and nobody cares! Accept that.

You must live a great life to have to be fixated on this particular thread/subject that I happen to enjoy despite the dozens of other threads I've started, comment in, maintain, and post more than one sentence to. Not to mention the dozens of interests I've displayed in Sports, Music, Film/TV, and otherwise.

HQ doesn't even have half the posts in this thread. And even if he did I don't think most people give a shit. Let me know when this gets to 50 pages of it being just HQ posting to himself before comparing it to the Astroboy thread. Even then he'll be different from WP because WP didn't add anything positive to the site whereas HQ does so if he wants to talk about this shit I'm cool with it.

Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco will be 1st time writers for episode 5x03 Castle Sweet Castle. Joanna's written 6 episodes for The Fairly Oddparents and 7 episodes for T.U.F.F. Puppy. Kristine's written 4 and 6 episodes respectively for those shows.

5x03 Castle Sweet Castle- Seeing Twilight helping out Fluttershy with drying her animals was sweet and LOL at her blatantly shoving Angel into dirt (as was her 'helping' the others or in Dash's case challenging her to 100 races). Sleeping Twilight = adorable.- Spike has a Rarity plushie doll... awesome. Also nice to see Spike get some screentime.- Rainbow Dash being so arrogant, "I prefer to think of them as everypony's trophies but with my name permanently etched on them," just totally fit.- The "make a home" song w/reprise was decent albeit nothing special.- Bulk Biceps as a masseuse... oddly fitting. And I think this may be the first time we hear a masseuse's voice.- Fun to see the ponies actually arguing amongst themselves in the name of being 'helpful' by removing items. Also Rarity and Dash's high hoof, hah.- Sweet seeing Spike and Twilight sharing a bonding moment over the shared loss of the Golden Oak Library and Twilight remarking that the castle can be made with items to make Spike feel at home too. Love seeing their relationship get some focus.- Pinkie Pie's line, "Wow, Fluttershy! I didn't know you could be loud enough to echo" was pretty funny.

Overall Thoughts: Decent if not subpar episode although the plot was pretty obvious from the get go and the pacing felt off at the end (where they were rushing to "tell" the changes e.g. Applejack and Dash fixing up Twilight's kitchen & library respectively) instead of actually showing us. I did enjoy the Spike/Twilight scenes the most and it was nice seeing Rarity letting her fashion side take over, admitting she "couldn't help herself" in fixing up the dining room + refusing to let go of any items when they were initially trying to take out one item to improve the clutter they had created. The utilization of the chandelier with 'memories' of Twilight and the gang was a nice touch.

Overall Thoughts: Surprisingly dark yet entertaining episode. Apple Bloom has the best nightmares. Loved seeing the anxiety and stress over not getting/having a cutie mark start to wear on Apple Bloom whilst trying to sleep and the escalation in the nightmares was a good change of pace (plus the recurring forest/echoey voice was surprisingly unsettling). The escalation of getting a cutie mark that was unwanted, then her friends abandoning her for actually getting a cutie mark, then finally her family throwing her out for not getting an Apple related cutie mark, all really worked as legit anxieties that Apple Bloom could have. Princess Luna being all epic, much like she was with Scootaloo, was welcome to see too.

Fun to see Apple Bloom actually try to stand up to Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, while still making them total jerks in her nightmare.

The final message of being afraid of the unknown is fine so long as the belief that one can still be who they are (and friends with who they know) after the fact will make their worries alright in the end.

The art work's been growing by leaps and bounds. Some of the shading was really, really stout stuff and it's obvious that the art department & DHX are starting to sneak in more paint based elements beyond the simplistic initial Flash stuff.

“Do you enjoy this chance to identify with a female character and your own femininity? Like, acting feminine is not something American men get many chances to do.”

“I’ve always enjoyed the Power Puff girls. I loved Jem when I was a kid,“ he says. "The problem is … aspects of society often view the feminine as ‘the other,’ as the bad, or lesser. As a man, I’ve certainly benefitted from those aspects of society. If you took me 10 or 15 years ago, I would’ve probably had some pretty backwards opinions. My views have changed over the years as I’ve met a lot of amazing people. I’ve learned to broaden my views, not just about women, but on gay people, trans people, all of the stuff you don’t realize when you’re growing up in an isolated community. This media influences people.”

Dan’s words stay with me as I wander through a second hall of vendors.

5x05 Tanks For the MemoriesReally fun, well paced, run the gamut of emotions episode as Rainbow Dash tries to stop Winter from coming (complete with Grinch homage smile) in order to stave off Tank's hibernation because she doesn't want to lose him for the Winter months until Spring. A good sentiment that hits home with everybody watching and a worthwhile tear-jerker moment near the end. Also liked the subtle nod at a common belief of hibernation as Rainbow Dash remarks at Fluttershy, "Uh, Fluttershy, Tank's not a bear."

"I'll Fly" was a really good song, up there with the S4 ones for me, and Dash's initial refusal to believe Fluttershy and Spike was a good way to build up her growing fear/anxiety into sabotaging Cloudsdale's winter making machine only to inadvertently make Winter arrive even earlier than expected. Loved the montage that went with the song and Rainbow's apologizing to her Pegasi brethren but needing to do this for Tank's (and her own) sake.

Several funny lines despite the seriousness of the episode with my favorite probably being:

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Pinkie (as Fluttershy, Rarity, and her sob over Dash's sobbing): I'm sad because you're not sad, TwilightTwilight: What? Me? What about Applejack?Pinkie: Applejack cries on the inside, TwilightApplejack: It's true (as she performs her hoof movement from the intro)

5x06 Appleloosa's Most WantedThe CMC always bring the fun and this week's episode was solid for the most part. Liked being back in Appleloosa and the entire Wild West theme was cool. Pretty simple, straightforward message that how you see yourself/your talent may be completely different from somebody else's perspective and looking a different way may bring about a positive change to yourself.

Trouble Shoes Clyde was a neat character as he surmised his cutie mark (an upside down horseshoe) represented bad luck due to his clumsiness yet his love of rodeos kept forcing them to close down for fear of being attacked further in the belief that the accidents were intentional sabotages.

Definitely could see the 'influence' of the big sisters on the CMC and their actions/reactions including Applebloom's bold brashness to take charge and lead them. Ending was what it was with the CMC breaking Trouble Shoes out of jail(!) and forcing him into the show as a rodeo clown where he makes himself stand out as, "the best Rodeo Clown (they've) ever seen," due to his natural clumsiness and klutziness. Although Trouble Shoes didn't get to be in the rodeo the way he wanted to, as a competitor since he's always loved the rodeo, he still managed to find a way to be in it after the CMC showed him how to properly utilize his talents in a way he had never seen before.

5x07 Make New Friends But Keep DiscordDecent episode with John De Lancie being fantastic as usual (and really carrying this episode) in his jealousy at being usurped by Fluttershy's new friend, Tree Hugger. The jealousy growing at even little touches and 'invites' to dinner as a foursome with Smooze. Tree Hugger being a new age spiritualist type kinda worked but was also pretty flat and one dimensional.

- Loved the call back by the CMC to Season 1 with "This is going to be The Best Night Ever!" Also got a heavy Peanuts vibe with the chorusy voices, etc.- Loved the 4th wall breaking by Pinkie and the mention of Maud! Maud Pie Cameo and lol at her deadpan snarking on Discord's stand up routine.- Discord wearing the same suit Jim Carrey wore in Dumb & Dumber was a good sight gag. Same for Discord playing up the watermelon smashing of Gallagher.- Grand Galloping Gala served as a good backdrop and poor Rarity.- I snickered at Celestia laughing at Discord putting Twilight down for her inability to fly well (and Pinkie's smile helped too).- Also nice to see Rainbow Dash, typically a tomboy, looking rather cute and dare I saw 'girlish' in her dress.- I died when Fluttershy smacked the flower out of Discord's hand. Hah.

The first just eh episode of the season for me. Pinkie Pie had some great stuff although Gilda's jerk ass attitude felt a bit too on the nose compared to her initial episode arrival. Plot was mainly there for a Dash/Gilda reunion + "friendship" (through Gilda no less!) to solve the issue of community issues.

I liked some of the lines and felt Gilda's snark at Pinkie Pie usually worked including Pinkie's confused reaction to Gilda's scones not needing "friendship" (Gilda's call up to the power of friendship healing everything! which... actually ended up being the result of the episode's end in a bit of irony) but instead needing more baking powder and also enjoyed Pinkie's fourth wall breaking as usual. Pinkie pretty much made this episode and made me keep watching for her reactions.

Overall, the episode kind of felt flat though and the pacing was fine but nothing that special. Dash felt more like a set piece as opposed to a key character and the whole 'bit' thing got old pretty fast (I couldn't help but note that the Griffons reminded me of 'Jewish' stereotypes quite a bit).

OH.MY.GOD Ponified version of Buffy's The Zeppo with focus on all the background ponies. Episode was a total fan's wetdream and I gotta admit, it really worked and was a lot of fun even for characters I didn't really care about in the past.

- Derpy spoke and was adorable throughout the entire ep!- Dr. Whooves was all Doctory and Whoey!- Vinyl Scratch! All techno music through the headphones and pinkish tint through the goggles!- THE DUDE PONY! Big Lebowski references!- Octavia spoke with an upper class accent all upper classy and partially snooty!- Lyra and Bon Bon together, practically doing everything short of saying, "We're lesbians together." The ep utilizing "Sweetie Drops" as Bon Bon's secret special agent name + her whole undercover monster hunting act, hilarious stuff.- Roommates exist in Ponyville with Vinyl Scratch and Octavia! Vinyl being mute is a wonderfully weird character trait.- Gummy's Thoughts!- Celestia and Luna squabbling all sisterly was fun to see.- Lyra sitting up right All human wannabe pony.- *snicker* The main 6 getting locked out of the wedding, hah.

Consider it kind of ironic that people are lambasting male fans for being fans of the show precisely because it's "aimed at little girls" when that was the initial goal of creator Lauren Faust in the first place (granted the age demographic was intended to be much lower but blame the usually solid writing for that). Then ignore when male shows gain a heavy unintended female demographic.

What was Lauren Faust's goal? A show aimed at little girls, or a show aimed at everyone everywhere? Because I was under the impression that it was aimed at girls in grade school. People ignore male-targeted shows gaining women as fans because with the wealth of television targeted toward 18-49 males, it's not as if males are having anything encroached upon if girls decide they like Breaking Bad or football. I can't think of any case where any program of merit has been spoiled by attracting an unforeseen female demographic. I liked Gilmore Girls a lot (and I'll still watch an episode here and there), but I never felt like I had to lord it over people that I got the show on some higher level than the teen/twentysomething girls who mostly watched it, probably because I didn't really get it on any higher level. It was just scenery porn and people making witty cultural allusions -- HOLY SHIT, GILMORE GIRLS IS MY LITTLE PONY

Why can't young girls have a TV show of their own without a bunch of deviants ruining it for them? Of course, fundamentally speaking, we're talking about a cartoon meant to sell toys, itself a remake of a prior cartoon meant to sell toys, now running on a network partly owned by a toy company. So it's not really art we're talking about, but still, I wish today's kids could have an oasis of kid stuff for the sake of kid stuff before being exposed to a world where everything is commodified and sexualized. I'm not saying that you're one of the people expressly ruining the show for little girls by putting such terrible things into the cultural bloodstream, but you did, after all, assign sexuality to characters and compare a particularly enjoyable episode of a children's show to ejaculating in your sleep.

I liked Gilmore Girls a lot (and I'll still watch an episode here and there), but I never felt like I had to lord it over people that I got the show on some higher level than the teen/twentysomething girls who mostly watched it, probably because I didn't really get it on any higher level. It was just scenery porn and people making witty cultural allusions

It is precisely the inability of viewership to match the speed and fecundity of allusion as such in the series that makes it so that we will never catch up, just as the daughter who comes after cannot catch up. Neither she nor we will make up the ground. The mother is the form of the future death that the daughter—by sheer virtue of her temporal position—will have to watch take place. This is the mother-daughter contract, and it is also the visual, ethical, and temporal contract that governs Gilmore Girls. If televisual intertextelasticity formally suggests a model of plenitude, in-finitude, and renewable play, this is always, in this series, set against the stilling of all that generation in the fundamentally brute, sad, small reality that the mother is a form of a gap in history that no daughter, no viewer, can close, a temporal rend that cannot be sutured but only ever mourned.

I liked Gilmore Girls a lot (and I'll still watch an episode here and there), but I never felt like I had to lord it over people that I got the show on some higher level than the teen/twentysomething girls who mostly watched it, probably because I didn't really get it on any higher level. It was just scenery porn and people making witty cultural allusions

It is precisely the inability of viewership to match the speed and fecundity of allusion as such in the series that makes it so that we will never catch up, just as the daughter who comes after cannot catch up. Neither she nor we will make up the ground. The mother is the form of the future death that the daughter—by sheer virtue of her temporal position—will have to watch take place. This is the mother-daughter contract, and it is also the visual, ethical, and temporal contract that governs Gilmore Girls. If televisual intertextelasticity formally suggests a model of plenitude, in-finitude, and renewable play, this is always, in this series, set against the stilling of all that generation in the fundamentally brute, sad, small reality that the mother is a form of a gap in history that no daughter, no viewer, can close, a temporal rend that cannot be sutured but only ever mourned.

I liked Gilmore Girls a lot (and I'll still watch an episode here and there), but I never felt like I had to lord it over people that I got the show on some higher level than the teen/twentysomething girls who mostly watched it, probably because I didn't really get it on any higher level. It was just scenery porn and people making witty cultural allusions

It is precisely the inability of viewership to match the speed and fecundity of allusion as such in the series that makes it so that we will never catch up, just as the daughter who comes after cannot catch up. Neither she nor we will make up the ground. The mother is the form of the future death that the daughter—by sheer virtue of her temporal position—will have to watch take place. This is the mother-daughter contract, and it is also the visual, ethical, and temporal contract that governs Gilmore Girls. If televisual intertextelasticity formally suggests a model of plenitude, in-finitude, and renewable play, this is always, in this series, set against the stilling of all that generation in the fundamentally brute, sad, small reality that the mother is a form of a gap in history that no daughter, no viewer, can close, a temporal rend that cannot be sutured but only ever mourned.

5x10 Princess SpikeLame overall, which is a shame as I'm a fan of Spike as a character but he's mostly been miss when doing general standalone character episodes and this continued that trend. The lesson was one note too with Spike taking advantage of his friendship with Twilight to fulfill "requests" and basically answer for her while she slept (almost the entire episode).

Also didn't help that none of the other main 6 characters were around at all so the interaction was solely Spike & background ponies or Spike & Cadance. Her role was limited to, "Are you sure you're doing this for Twilight? Okay..." in that knowing manner of somebody who should be helping the main character instead letting them fall flat on their face and suffer the consequences until they come to their own realization of why they were wrong.